One of the ultimate goals in electronics is the ability to directly write electronic components and circuits on a variety of substrates. Advancing materials chemistry and developing printhead technology is bringing this goal closer to reality.
Drop on demand inkjet printing applied to industrial processes, utilizes the piezo electric effect to deliver precise and consistent quantities of fluids to media or substrate. Such inkjet printing has a relatively low resolution, which might not be enough to print the fine details in circuit boards 100 as shown in FIG. 1.
Current methods for printing electronics on suitable substrates, for example applying material deposition, results in relatively thick lines, i.e. greater than 30 micrometers. Other methods, such as subtractive methods, which may be based upon laser writing and etching, may consume large amounts of expensive conductive material. FIG. 2 shows conductive grid lines 204 deposited by known printing methods such as inkjet deposition of conductive material on substrate 208.
The deposition of the conductive grid lines may also be done by flexographical means. The width of the grid lines formed depends on the printing method, but in general are not narrow enough to be used for high density circuit boards.